Otto Regenbogen (Philologist)

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Otto Regenbogen (born February 14, 1891 in Neumarkt in Silesia ; † November 8, 1966 in Heidelberg ) was a German classical philologist .

He was a determined exponent of Third Humanism and, as a professor of classical philology in Heidelberg, attracted a large number of students from 1925 onwards. Since he was late in reporting the Jewish descent of his wife, he was forcibly given leave of absence by the National Socialists in 1935.

After the Second World War he actively participated in the reconstruction of Heidelberg University and received his professorship back. His research was particularly related to ancient science and medicine, the tragedies of Seneca , the writer Lucretius and individual questions about Aeschylus , Homer and Plato . In Lucretian research he takes on an outsider role; his interpretation of the Seneca tragedies, on the other hand, led to a more positive evaluation of the poet compared to his predecessors, which continues to this day.

Life

Otto Regenbogen was born on February 14, 1891 in the Silesian district town of Neumarkt as the son of the veterinarian Otto Regenbogen and his wife Karoline, née. Spies was born. His father was appointed full professor at the Veterinary University in Berlin in 1898 . Otto Regenbogen attended the Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Berlin from 1900, where he was particularly influenced by the ancient language teachers Heinrich Buermann, Johannes Fischer and Adolf Trendelenburg .

That is why, after graduating from high school, in the summer semester of 1909, Regenbogen went to Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität to study Classical Philology and German Philology . He spent the summer semester of 1910 in Göttingen , where he was a member of the philological seminar under Paul Wendland's direction and attended linguistic exercises with Jacob Wackernagel . Him most influenced his Berlin teacher Hermann Diels and Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff who also encouraged him to his thesis: On May 20, 1914 Rainbow has been with the doctorate Symbola Hippocratea Dr. phil. doctorate in which he dealt with the writings of the doctor Hippocrates of Kos . This work marked the beginning of his lifelong study of medical history.

High school teacher and associate professor in Berlin

While he was preparing for the state examination, the First World War broke out. Rainbow volunteered as a nurse at the end of 1914 and started work in January 1915. On June 15, 1915, Regenbogen passed the first state examination with distinction in Latin, Greek and German; the probationary year was waived for him. For his work as a nurse he received the Red Cross for Medic (3rd grade) on January 27, 1916. In February he finished his service and returned to Berlin, where he began his seminar year in April at the Mommsen Gymnasium in Charlottenburg . On April 1, 1918 he was appointed senior teacher. In addition, Regenbogen tried to improve his academic career and did his habilitation at the Berlin University, which he achieved in 1920. His inaugural lecture Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Collection was based on Diels' suggestion. Even then, Wilamowitz offered his student a job at the university, but Regenbogen turned it down because he wanted to take his high school class to the Abitur.

When Wilamowitz retired in 1921, Regenbogen went to the University of Berlin as a part-time private lecturer. Here he met Werner Jaeger , who had been appointed Wilamowitz's successor. The contact with Jaeger was a defining event in his life. Through the impressions of the First World War, Regenbogen realized during his time as a high school teacher that his generation lacked clear inner values. The deconstruction of the concept of humanism from the 19th century exposed the learners to “the eternally provisional”. That is why in the 1920s, Regenbogen joined the new concept of humanism, which was represented by Werner Jaeger in Berlin and Julius Stenzel in Breslau . The reconsideration consisted in the fact that humanism was no longer understood as an absolute ideal (classicistic), but as an example anchored in time (historical). The fixed point for the new humanism of Jaeger and his followers was the Greek concept of paideia , as it had been propagated by Plato . Rainbow decided to implement this new concept in academic teaching. On April 1, 1923, he left grammar school and went to Berlin University as an associate professor of classical philology.

Professor in Heidelberg

Just two years later, Regenbogen was offered the chair of Classical Philology at Heidelberg University , which had been vacant since Franz Boll's death (1924). Rainbow accepted the call on April 1, 1925 and moved to Heidelberg, where he worked until the end of his life. He worked on nationwide congresses to further develop Jaeger's concept of humanism. In 1929 he was elected first chairman of the German Classical Philology Association, to which he had belonged since its foundation (1925). He also published didactic lectures. In recognition of his services to research, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences elected him a full member of its philosophical-historical class in 1929.

Regenbogen's academic work in Heidelberg was widely recognized early on, which was evident from the fact that many universities treated him as a candidate for appointment. In an expert report by the University of Freiburg from 1931, for example, it says : “All of his work ... means a decisive objective and methodological promotion of science. … R (egenbogen) knows how to lively stimulate and guide himself through the penetrating power of the written and spoken word. A strong personal ethos combined with a didactic skill that has been tried and tested over many years makes him a teacher with a sparkling effect. " At that time, Regenbogen was in second place behind Eduard Fraenkel from Göttingen, who received and accepted the call.

Shortly thereafter, Regenbogen was traded as the successor candidate for Fraenkel at the University of Göttingen; however, Kurt Latte received the call . Rainbow turned down an offer from the University of Basel (as Latte's successor). In 1933 he was traded behind Wolfgang Schadewaldt as the successor to Alfred Körte in Leipzig . In 1934, together with Schadewaldt and Werner Jaeger, Regenbogen was accepted into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Disciplinary proceedings and exile from teaching post 1935–1945

During the period of National Socialism, Regenbogen kept his distance from the National Socialist ideology of those in power and did not join any party affiliated organization. In his office he behaved as impartially as possible: despite his political distance, he supported the appointment of the ideology-oriented pedagogue Ernst Krieck (1934) and that of his student Hans Oppermann (1935), an avowed National Socialist, with positive reports for professional reasons . In the same year, Regenbogen himself got into trouble: from 1929 he was married to Dora Schöll (1880–1967), the daughter of the Heidelberg philologist Fritz Schöll , whose grandmother was a converted Jew. In his “ Aryan certificate ” of June 18, 1935, Regenbogen had indicated the origin of his wife as “Aryan”. He later stated that he did not know that his wife's grandmother was not baptized until she was four or five years old, and that his wife was therefore considered a “ Jewish mixed race ”. Notwithstanding this declaration, the rector of Heidelberg University, Wilhelm Groh , initiated disciplinary proceedings against rainbow on September 19, 1935. At the same time he relieved him of his office and reduced his salary by 20% "because he violated his duty as a civil servant to show himself worthy of the respect and trust that his profession requires through his behavior in and outside of his office " .

The Rector recommended that Regenbogen correct the files held at the Ministry. Regenbogen's lawyer Leonhard turned to the dean Hermann Güntert for support, but he passed this “brazen letter” on to the rector. In 1936, under increasing pressure, Regenbogen resigned from the chairmanship of the Gymnasium Association and the associated German Classical Philology Association. In January 1937 he asked for a travel permit to Uppsala , which the dean refused, pointing out that the disciplinary proceedings were still pending. In the first instance, Regenbogen was sentenced to five years' dismissal at 75% of the pension; however, this judgment has been revised. When Rainbow received an invitation to Basel, the then Rector Krieck recommended that he voluntarily decline. On June 22, Regenbogen received a reprimand and was sentenced to a fine of 300 marks (about 30% of a month's salary). The ministry was considering transferring him to another university. These plans became superfluous when the Reichsstatthalter retired him on September 24, 1937 in accordance with Section 6 of the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service . Rainbow did not take any further action against this judgment because he - as he wrote to Rector Krieck - considered it useless. Hildebrecht Hommel was appointed Regenbogen's successor to the chair in 1937 , and was deposed by the US occupation authorities in 1945.

There are no studies of Regenbogen's activities from 1937 to 1945. He was excluded from academic teaching, but was not prohibited from publishing and also published various writings during this period, including the extensive article in Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll on Theophrastus von Eresos (1940) and a memorial for the librarian Otto Kunzer (1942). He also published two lectures on Goethe's relationship to Hellenism in 1942.

post war period

After the end of the war, Regenbogen immediately tried to re-enter academic teaching. As early as April 1945, shortly after the Americans marched into Heidelberg, he was discussing the future of Heidelberg University with Professors Alfred Weber , Else Jaffé , Karl Jaspers and Alexander Mitscherlich in the apartment of the SPD politician Emil Henk . On the initiative of the Counter Intelligence Corps , the so-called “Committee of Thirteen” was formed after a short time, which, under the leadership of Martin Dibelius, organized the reconstruction of the university's self-administration. In August, Regenbogen was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts. A subcommittee of the “Committee of Thirteen”, to which Otto Regenbogen also belonged, was supposed to evaluate politically the professors and lecturers loyal to the Nazi regime. However, this work was ruined by the dismissal measures of the American occupation forces in the course of the denazification of 1945/1946. At the time, Regenbogen advocated a differentiated treatment of lecturers: he only wanted those who had actively campaigned for the Nazi regime to be banned from the university. Here, in a memorandum to the occupying power, he explicitly named the historian Paul Schmitthenner , the folklorist Eugen Fehrle and the pedagogue Ernst Krieck, to whom he played a major role in the “ destruction of the old scientific spirit of the university ” (German: “Destruction of old scientific Spirit of the University ”). If possible, he wanted to keep the other lecturers teaching, even if they had joined the NSDAP or the SS .

On September 7, 1945, Regenbogen was reinstated as professor. In return, he was given the post of Eugen Fehrle, who had been removed from office by the Americans. The Chair for Folklore was transformed into a Chair for Classical and German Philology . Rainbow was elected dean for one year in 1946. On September 12, 1946, the Berlin Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member. He turned down an offer at the Humboldt University in Berlin (1947). After the end of his deanery, Regenbogen acted from 1948 to 1949 as secretary of the Philosophical-Historical Class of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. From 1951 to 1954 he was a member of the board of the German Classical Philology Association, of which he later became an honorary member. In the spring of 1953 he was a visiting professor at Uppsala University and was appointed a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .

In 1959, Regenbogen retired at the age of 68. Franz Dirlmeier , who had worked as a professor in Mainz and Würzburg after his release in Munich in 1945, was appointed his successor . In 1961 he published his predecessor's small writings with a portrait and a list of writings. In his final years, rainbow received high public honors: in 1962 he received the Royal Greek Order of St. George and on May 25, 1966 the Great Federal Cross of Merit . In the last few years of his life, Regenbogen had a nervous problem that restricted his motor skills. Otto Regenbogen died on November 8, 1966 at the age of 75. The Philosophical Faculty of Heidelberg University organized a memorial service in his honor on December 18, 1966.

His students included Hermann Gundert , Hans Oppermann, Viktor Pöschl , Paul Handel , Alexander Kleinlogel , Christoff Neumeister and Gert Preiser .

Services

Otto Regenbogen was active in many areas of classical studies. He dealt with ancient philosophy and natural science, especially with the history of medicine , as well as with Greco-Roman historiography and the Roman poets of the classical and post-classical periods. In his research, the influences of his teachers Diels and Wilamowitz-Moellendorff were combined: From Diels he took over the pursuit of synthesis and structuring of individual research, from Wilamowitz the universality of knowledge and the ability to perceive the individuality of every phenomenon.

History of ancient medicine and science

Regenbogen's preoccupation with ancient medical history goes back to the suggestion of Hermann Diels, who devoted his life to basic research in medical history and founded the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum / Latinorum at the Berlin Academy in 1907 . Regenbogen's dissertation from 1914 was dedicated to the Greek doctor Hippocrates of Kos . The plan to publish it in an expanded form under the title Hippocratis qui fertur de morbo sacro libellus was never carried out. His later essay A Research Method for Ancient Science (1930) was considered to be groundbreaking: In it he examined the ancient methodology of analogy and experiment . This led him to the philosophy of the Peripatetic , with which he dealt intensively in the following years. In three essays (1930–1937) he contributed to uncovering modern misinterpretations and to depicting the achievement of the Aristotle students for ancient science. With his comprehensive article on the philosopher and natural scientist Theophrastus von Eresos (pupil and successor of Aristotle) ​​in Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity from 1940 he created a basis for theophrasics research that was valid long after his time.

Lucretius and Seneca interpretation

In the 1930s, too, Regenbogen dealt intensively with the Roman poets Lucretius and Seneca . His writings Lucretius, his figure in his poems (1932), pain and death in the tragedies of Seneca (1930) and Seneca as a thinker of the Roman will (1936) examined the survival and further development of Greek philosophy in the Roman world. In the work of Lucretius he saw an inexorable inner tension between personal, religious feeling and the poet's Epicurean dogma. This existential interpretation was attacked many times by other specialists and has hardly found supporters; but nevertheless Regenbogen's work ensured an increased occupation of science with Lucretius.

The classical philologist Christoph Kugelmeier calls Regenbogen's lecture Pain and Death in the Tragedies of Seneca a "milestone for Seneca research". Regenbogen's new approach to interpretation was significant: while research so far has only dealt with the literary technique and the style of Seneca and compared the results with the classical Greek tragedians Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides , Regenbogen placed the emphasis on the content of the tragedies. Seneca's intention was not to surpass the Greek classics in terms of composition and tension, but to portray and deal with affects and emotional crisis situations.

Aeschylus and Homer interpretation

In the Graecist field, Regenbogen's works on the tragedy of Aeschylus (1933) and on the understanding of the soul in Homer (1948) correspond to these Latinist works . In this script, ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΝ ΨΥΧΗΣ ΦΩΣ. Erwin Rohdes Psyche and the more recent criticism. A contribution to Homeric belief in the soul , Regenbogen analyzed the approach of his Heidelberg predecessor Erwin Rohde and the resulting controversy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rainbow wanted to use early Greek thinking to reveal the boundaries between the unquestioned divine work and the reflective attitude that began. Continuing Erwin Rohde's approach, who saw the human psyche (“soul”) linked with the physical, Rainbow spoke of the “vital soul”.

Historiography: Herodotus and Thucydides

The "strongest and most fruitful achievement" of the rainbow (Gundert) focuses on the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides . Up to now the general opinion had prevailed that the origin and structure of their historical works could be traced back to external developments at the time of writing. Rainbow founded the modern view that the creation of the works can be traced back to a structure of historical thought, to the respective historiographical method of the two. In the fundamental contrast between the two historical works (the colorful variety in Herodotus and the concentration in Thucydides), Regenbogen recognized a principle that contrasts religious-metaphysical and immanent-political interpretations of history. In addition, he published a translation of selected Thucydides speeches ( Politische Reden , Leipzig 1949).

Interpretation of Plato and the history of science in antiquity

The middle of his work (between archaic-early classical Greek and high classical-post-classical Latin literature) is a study of the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus from 1950. Rainbow answered the old research question why the dialogue with eros and rhetoric has two thematic focuses, with the union of both Principles in the Logos , which Socrates recommends to the young Phaedrus as an educational institution. Due to this complex system, rainbow dated Phaedrus in Plato's late work (after Philebos ). This view has been rejected by other researchers, mainly based on studies of language statistics .

In his late work, Regenbogen again dealt with Greek science, from scholarly library work to popular history. He wrote four comprehensive articles for Pauly-Wissowa ( Pamphila [1] , Pausanias [17] , Pinax [3] , Theophrastos [3] ), which also appeared as reprints.

Fonts (selection)

  • Symbola Hippocratea . Göttingen 1914 (= dissertation, University of Berlin).
  • with Emil Kroymann : What do schools and universities expect from each other in the field of ancient language teaching? Leipzig 1928.
  • Memorandum on some questions of ancient language university teaching . Berlin 1930.
  • Pain and Death in Seneca's Tragedies . Leipzig 1930. Darmstadt Munich 1963.
  • Friedrich Gundolf in memory . Heidelberg 1931.
  • Lucretius. His figure in his poem. Interpretations . Leipzig / Berlin 1932.
  • In memory of Otto Kunzer . Heidelberg 1942.
  • Greek present. Two lectures on Goethe's Greek culture . Leipzig 1942.
  • Humanism - Today? A lecture . Heidelberg 1947.
  • Thucydides: Political Speeches . Leipzig 1949.
  • Sophocles: Oedipus rex . Heidelberg 1949.
  • A research method of ancient science. Small writings, Munich 1961.
  • Franz Dirlmeier (Ed.): Small writings / Otto rainbow . Munich 1964 (with picture).

literature

Festschriften and edited volumes
  • Hermeneia: Festschrift Otto Regenbogen for his 60th birthday on February 14, 1951, presented by students and friends . Heidelberg 1952.
  • Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1803-1932 . Ed .: Rectorate of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität-Heidelberg. Springer Berlin Heidelberg Tokyo. 2012. 324 pp. ISBN 978-3-642-70761-2
Obituaries and memories
  • Gundert 1967a = Hermann Gundert: Otto Regenbogen † . In: Gnomon . Volume 39 (1967), pp. 219-221.
  • Gundert 1967b = Hermann Gundert: Otto Regenbogen . In: Gymnasium . Volume 74 (1967), pp. 105-107.
  • Gundert 1967c = Hermann Gundert: Otto Regenbogen . In: Heidelberger Jahrbücher . Volume 11 (1967), pp. 27-39.
  • Viktor Pöschl : Otto Regenbogen (1891–1966) . In: Eikasmós . Volume 4 (1993), pp. 293-294.
Special examinations
  • Angelos Chaniotis , Ulrich Thaler: The ancient studies at the University of Heidelberg 1933–1945 . In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Volker Sellin , Eike Wolgast (Eds.): The University of Heidelberg in National Socialism . Heidelberg 2006, pp. 391-434 ( online ).
  • Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberg scholars lexicon . Volume 2, Berlin / Heidelberg 1986, pp. 216-217.
  • Jürgen C. Heß: Heidelberg 1945 . Stuttgart 1996.
  • Jürgen Malitz : Classical Philology . In: Eckhard Wirbelauer (ed.): The Freiburg Philosophical Faculty 1920–1960. Members - structures - networks . Freiburg / Munich 2006, pp. 303–364.
  • Dorothee Mußgnug: The expelled Heidelberg lecturers. On the history of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität after 1933 . Heidelberg 1988.
  • Stephen P. Remy: The Heidelberg myth: The nazification and denazification of a German university . Cambridge (Mass.) 2002.
  • Birgit Vézina: “The Gleichschaltung” of Heidelberg University in the wake of the National Socialist seizure of power . Heidelberg 1982.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Bernd Effe : Poetry and Teaching , Munich 1977, p. 71 calls Regenbogen's position "particularly blatant" .
  2. ↑ a b Christoph Kugelmeier: The inner visualization of the stage play in Seneca's tragedies , Munich 2007, p. 11.
  3. ^ So rainbow in the vita of his dissertation (1914), p. 79.
  4. ↑ Heinrich Buermann's personal form in the personnel file of the BIL reviewer in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)
  5. ↑ Johannes Fischer's personal sheet in the BIL's personal file in the archive database of the Library for Research on Educational History (BBF)
  6. ↑ Rainbow in the vita of his dissertation (1914), pp. 79–80.
  7. ↑ In the vita of his dissertation (1914), p. 80, Regenbogen names Diels and Wilamowitz as well as Eduard Norden among the teachers to whom he owes most.
  8. ↑ a b According to the information in his personal form (see web links ).
  9. ↑ Gundert (1967b), p. 106.
  10. ↑ Gundert (1967b), p. 105.
  11. ↑ Emil Kroymann, Otto Regenbogen: What do schools and universities expect from each other in the field of classical language teaching? , 2 lectures, go on d. 56th meeting of German philologists and schoolmen in Göttingen on September 29, 1927, Teubner Leipzig 1928
  12. ↑ Quoted from Malitz (2006), pp. 304–305, note 9.
  13. ^ Eduard Seidler , Christoph J. Scriba, Wieland Berg: Leopoldina Symposion: The Elite of the Nation in the Third Reich. The relationship of academies and their scientific environment to National Socialism , Halle 1995, p. 162.
  14. ↑ Vézina (1982), p. 133.
  15. ↑ Malitz (2006), pp. 315-316, note 54.
  16. ↑ Fritz Schöll's father, Gustav Adolf Schöll , married Johanna Henle in 1842, a sister of the anatomist Jakob Henle . Both were children of a Jewish merchant and converted with the whole family to the Protestant denomination in 1821.
  17. ↑ Vézina (1982), p. 115.
  18. ^ From Otto Regenbogen's disciplinary file in the Heidelberg University Archives, quoted from Mußgnug (1988), p. 102.
  19. ^ The Gymnasium 47 (1936)
  20. ↑ Mußgnug (1988), p. 102.
  21. ↑ Mußgnug (1988), p. 103.
  22. ↑ Vézina (1982), p. 116.
  23. ↑ Heß (1996) p. 102.
  24. ↑ Heß (1996) pp. 103-104.
  25. ↑ Remy (2002), p. 133.
  26. ^ Remy (2002), p. 155.
  27. ↑ Pöschl (1994) 193.
  28. ↑ Gundert (1967c), p. 27.
  29. ↑ Gundert (1967a), p. 219 and Gundert (1967b), p. 105.
  30. ^ Sources and studies on the history of ancient mathematics , Section B, Volume 1 (1929/1930), pp. 130–182. Reprinted in: Kleine Schriften , Munich 1961, pp. 141–194.
  31. ^ Supplementary volume 7, 1940, columns 1353-1562; also published as a special edition.
  32. ↑ Gundert (1967a), p. 220.
  33. ↑ Remarks on the seven of Aeschylus , in: Hermes 68, 1933, p. 51ff.
  34. ^ In: Synopsis, Festgabe für A. Weber , Heidelberg 1948, pp. 366–396. Also in: Kleine Schriften , Munich 1961, pp. 1–28.
  35. ↑ a b Gundert (1967a), p. 221.
  36. ↑ Remarks on the interpretation of the Platonic Phaedrus , in: Miscellanea Academica Berolinensia , II, Berlin 1950, pp. 198–219. Also in: Kleine Schriften , Munich 1961, p. 248ff.
  37. ↑ Dorothee Hellwig, Adikia in Plato's “Politeia”: Interpretations of Books VIII and IX , Amsterdam 1980, p. 68, note 159.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 7, 2010 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Rainbow, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical philologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Neumarkt in Silesia
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1966
Place of death Heidelberg